Mind over spider

Me and Bruno

Our friend Paul came over to our bungalow a day or two after we moved in. "Don´t look now," I told him. "There is a huge spider right over your head."

Paul decided not to look at all, since he´s kind of an arachnaphobe. Good idea because this was a big one. I am generally not squeamish about spiders, but this one gave me the creeps.

After Paul left, Johnny and I debated what to do about the spider. He had taken up residence in a crack between the ceiling beam and the wall. Johnny tentatively tried to reach him with a magazine, but it was too high, and the spider just scurried right up and hid. Short of calling in an exterminator, there wasn´t much to be done.

I decided it was time to reset my perspective. It was time for mind over matter. Or, in this case, mind over spider.

I dubbed the spider Bruno. I hate mosquitos and other biting, buzzing, itch causing insects, so thanked him for "guarding the door" and taking care of many of these nasty pests.

We observed Bruno and found that he has made no effort to chase us down, crawl on us, bite us or otherwise kill us dead. He is in fact rather shy, chosing to hide most of the day and hunt in the evenings. Sometimes we wouldn´t see him at all, or he will just leave one long black gam sticking out, you know, to let us know he´s ok.

Close up on Bruno, front door guardian.

Mind over spider works pretty well. It only became a bit more challenging when we realized Bruno has a cousin, who lives in the crack above our bed.

...

This choice of location proved more challenging.

I dubbed this guardian Takecare (after one of the greatest dog names of all time), since clearly all he was doing was taking care of us while we slept, guarding against bed bugs and fleas and mosquitos and other crawlies.We crawled into our cozy bed, fully expecting spider nightmares the whole night through. But, none came. As with Bruno, Takecare mostly hides and has never come lower than a foot or so from the ceiling. He has yet to try to kill us in our sleep.

So there you have it, folks. Mind over spider. Peaceful coexistence. Harmony with nature. All these good things.

Now we will have to see what we can do about the scorpions.